'Artistic Style' on Social Media
Recently, more and more content creators from Nghe An have appeared on Facebook and TikTok. Each has their own storytelling style and way of life, but they all share a common trait: they speak with a simple, authentic Nghe An accent, and their content revolves around cooking, farming, yards, chickens, braised fish, stories about husbands and children, making a living… and even short comedic skits based on everyday life.
Surprisingly, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people follow them, not only people from Nghe An province and beyond, but also audiences from all over who are curious and fascinated by their distinctive Nghe An accent and lifestyle.
The allure of simplicity
“Hello everyone, I’m Ngoc, from Nghe An province. I’m 42 years old this year. Currently, I’m returning to my hometown to live a slower life, hoping to support and heal my daughter who has autism spectrum disorder…” – that’s the familiar introduction on Ngoc Ruby’s TikTok channel. Ngoc is from Nghia Lam commune – a purely agricultural area with simple scenery and honest people. After many years away from home and experiencing life’s upheavals, she decided to bring her daughter back, choosing a gentle, slow, and peaceful life in her familiar home, surrounded by vast fields, lush green vegetable gardens, and chickens clucking in the yard…
A few months ago, she started posting videos about life in her hometown. The videos don't have grand camera angles or complicated post-production techniques; they're just ordinary shots taken with a phone, featuring only herself and her daily activities: picking vegetables, harvesting starfruit, chopping sugarcane, visiting the garden, tending ducks, cooking…; and her dialogue in a distinct Nghe An accent, with its typical Vietnamese sounds like "mô, tê, răng, rứa," is strangely captivating.
At 42 years old, this middle-aged woman, who has experienced many heartbreaks, has conveyed to viewers a spirit of never giving up, transforming painful experiences into lessons of optimism and positivity. "Even if life knocks you down hundreds of thousands of times, as long as you dare to get up and keep going, your life will surely get better" - this is one of the heartfelt and motivational messages shared on Ms. Ngoc's TikTok channel.
What attracts viewers and keeps them engaged with content creators from Nghe An isn't the elaborate, polished scripts, but rather the appeal of seemingly ordinary things in the rhythm of life in their hometown.
The Nghe An accent, once heavily associated with negative stereotypes and considered difficult to understand, has now become a unique identifying feature on social media. Its simplicity, decisiveness, and sometimes slightly harsh but heartfelt tone create a sense of authenticity, making viewers feel like they are "communicating" with a familiar person, rather than watching a stranger's video. For example, the TikTok channel Ha Xu Nghe, owned by Ngoc Ha, who identifies herself as a "storyteller of agricultural products," has successfully captivated viewers with videos showcasing her harvesting fruits from her garden, making peanut candy, and cooking brown sugar, thus acting as a "bridge" for the consumption of local agricultural products.
One of the popular social media channels of a content creator from Nghe An is Dai Nghe An. Since 2022, the Dai Nghe An channel has emerged as a phenomenon, attracting hundreds of thousands of followers on Facebook and TikTok, with many clips reaching millions of views. Nguyen Van Dai (born in 1989, from Nam Dan commune) and his wife were born and raised in the countryside, deeply understanding the hardships of farmers. With an optimistic personality, when social media exploded, Dai decided to dedicate more time to developing his channel, turning what seemed like a disadvantage – the arduous life of a farmer – into an advantage. The couple focuses on exploiting simple, rustic elements around them with a humorous perspective, bringing laughter to everyone.
The Dai Nghe An channel retains the authentic Nghe An accent, filming simple country meals with braised herring, a bowl of vegetable soup, a plate of crispy pickled eggplant…; or scenes from home porches, rice fields, and windy afternoons…; interwoven within these settings are situations within families and villages, about the joys, sorrows, loves, angers, worries, thoughts, and interpersonal relationships of the people of Nghe An. Many comments under the videos confess: “I watch the channel every day,” “The Nghe An accent is hard to understand, but listening to it so much makes me… addicted,” “The videos are simple but so captivating!”, “I laugh my head off watching Dai,” “Organize a tour to Nghe An, Dai!”
On Facebook and TikTok, many channels run by people from Nghe An tend to exploit similar down-to-earth content, such as the channels of Nguyen Thi Hong Nu and Trong Dinh, attracting a large audience. Perhaps, through these videos, viewers can sense the character of the people of Nghe An: straightforward, generous, sometimes a little eccentric and witty, but sincere and warm. Could it be that, amidst a social media landscape dominated by countless glamorous and dramatic contents, these everyday videos become a refreshing haven, helping many people find peace in the hustle and bustle of modern life?
The Nghe An accent transcends borders.
It's not just those living in their hometown who create the flow of authentic Nghe An content; the Nghe An community around the world also plays a crucial role in preserving and spreading their identity on social media. On Facebook and TikTok, many channels run by people from Nghe An living abroad regularly share their daily lives, carrying their accent, habits, and feelings of their homeland in a multicultural environment.
One interesting case is Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa (from Do Luong), currently living in Switzerland with her husband, Mr. Martin Knöfel (a German). Her Facebook and TikTok channels attract hundreds of thousands of followers. What captivates viewers is not only the wife's down-to-earth nature or the charming Western husband, but also how Ms. Hoa preserves the authentic Nghe An accent, lifestyle, and spirit and personality in each of her videos.
She conversed with her husband in her distinctive Do Luong accent, occasionally tinged with wit, both humorous and warm. The traditional meals with bowls of pure fish sauce, salty pickled vegetables, and sweet rice cakes, along with explanations of customs and touching moments like her husband's attempt to pronounce a particular Nghe An accent correctly, resonated deeply with many viewers.
Some young people from Nghe An working in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, etc., have also created TikTok channels, documenting their daily lives abroad. In a multicultural environment, they still maintain their authentic Nghe An accent, filming themselves cooking delicious home-cooked meals, and expressing their longing for their homeland through their videos. Watching these videos, we can feel the hard work, the joys and sorrows of making a living, the efforts and dreams of these young people; we feel admiration and empathy.
Channels run by people from Nghe An living far from home have inadvertently become a cross-border cultural bridge, bringing the Nghe An accent to kitchens, neighborhoods, and distant lands. Thanks to this, the image of the people of Nghe An emerges as both sincere and modern, preserving their identity while simultaneously being open and confident in integration. These contents also help bridge the gap between generations of people from Nghe An living away from home. Older people watch to ease their homesickness and to hear the familiar accent that carries memories of their homeland. Younger people watch to feel more proud of their hometown's identity, no longer burdened by prejudices as before, and increasingly accepted by friends near and far.
From a cultural and social perspective, the trend of creating content on social media by people from Nghe An goes beyond mere sharing and entertainment. These videos are truly becoming vibrant cultural records, reflecting the unique identity of Nghe An, from its accent to its cuisine, customs, habits, and personality, through the lens of the digital age. The "Nghe An essence" thus manifests and spreads strongly across the internet as a distinct and distinctive current.
